CME Group Strategic Partnership with the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)
Rand-Denominated Contracts, CME Group Settlement Prices
CME Group and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) have a strategic partnership realized through a licensing agreement. The agreement enables the JSE to offer rand-denominated futures and options contracts on agricultural, metals, and energy products that settle to CME Group’s international benchmark settlement prices.
Products currently include:
Corn and soybean complex futures and options based on CBOT settlement prices
Copper, gold, silver and platinum futures and options based on COMEX settlement prices
WTI crude oil contracts based on NYMEX settlement price
Expanded Opportunities for Arbitrage, Spreading and Exposure
Rand-denominated access to CME Group’s settlement prices provides an avenue for:
South Africa’s platinum and gold producers to seamlessly integrate their hedging and exposure strategies with the world’s primary pricing benchmarks
South African corn producers, importers and exporters, millers and traders to gain exposure to the CBOT corn market, which is the largest corn market in the world
Broadening of South-North trades in corn derivatives based on expectations of directional price, spread movement or volatility
Arbitrage and spread opportunities between USA corn and South African white corn or yellow corn
Hedging and exposure to the global benchmark WTI Light Sweet Crude Oil (CL) contract
About the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
The JSE is South Africa’s sole full-service exchange. It is also the largest exchange in Africa and the continent’s leading commodities trading venue.
Products and services at the JSE include:
Futures and options on futures for agricultural products, equities and equity indices, metals, foreign exchange and interest rate instruments
Equities for over 400 companies with strong representation from South Africa’s mining and agricultural sectors
A number of index calculation and other information services, including the FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series and the Socially Responsible Investment Index (SRI), which lists companies based on “triple bottom-line” standards of economic, environmental, and social sustainability as well as corporate governance
AltX, an alternative venue created to help smaller businesses in South Africa list shares in their businesses
In addition, the exchange’s Africa strategy includes the creation of the Africa Board on which the continent’s companies are able to dual list and the improvement of access to stocks listed on African exchanges through a technology hub.